[SOLVED] iWork 08 or MS Office 08?

[Redrazor39]

I've heard that MS Office is buggy and has a crappy UI while iWork is awesome but can't export to Microsoft's 2003/2004 file formats well.

My family is thinking of getting an iMac but my mom has to make presentations a lot. Long presentations full of pictures and text, but not usually many animations and stuff.

Which office suite would be better for this new mac? She has to export her presentations to .ppt format or she won't be able to present. The iMac is a desktop, so it's not like she can just take it with her and present with that like with a laptop.

I also make presentations for school but I fill mine with rich content such as graphics, shadows, animations, and lots and lots of color.

Which office suite does these things (for each question, which one wins?)


easy to use ui
export to MS office 2003/2004 format almost perfectly (like 99%)
stable
NOT BUGGY
create more professional documents, spreadsheets, and presentations easily (pre-designed themes and templates that are better are a great plus)



Thanks for any help you can offer.

[LaRoza]

OpenOffice?

[SidStudios]

OpenOffice?


5. create more professional documents, spreadsheets, and presentations easily (pre-designed themes and templates that are better are a great plus)

Saying that OpenOffice has professional themes and templates is like saying that Mac OS X is open source.

[doorknob60]

You can download themes into openoffice, including PowerPoint ones, and it's free. If it's a mac, I recommend NeoOffice (it's OpenOffice with an Aqua interface). Of course, if it doesn't work out, you could try something else, because it's free (and open source) :D EDIT: Try looking for templates here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/

[LaRoza]

Saying that OpenOffice has professional themes and templates is like saying that Mac OS X is open source.
Maybe not 100%, but both are close: http://developer.apple.com/opensource/index.html

[strabes]

Why doesn't she just get a macbook? It could easily drive an external monitor (for home use) and she could use iWork for presentations (because it's much better than powerpoint).

[LaRoza]

Why doesn't she just get a macbook? It could easily drive an external monitor (for home use) and she could use iWork for presentations (because it's much better than powerpoint).

Not everyone has that kind of money...

[karellen]

I don't know anything about iwork 08, but ms office 2007 does really nice powerpoint presentations (and it's very easy to use, at least from my point of view)

[bashveank]

easy to use ui

iWork by far, no ui clutter, minimal multi-level menu messiness. It's basically everything that Office isn't in this regard.

export to MS office 2003/2004 format almost perfectly (like 99%)

I haven't exported to office formats much in iWork, but it's always worked fine for me. The best way to make sure your documents are preserved is just to export to pdf or video, failing that, Office seems like your only choice.

stableOffice has crashed on me more than iWork has.

NOT BUGGYI haven't found any annoying bugs in either...

create more professional documents, spreadsheets, and presentations easily (pre-designed themes and templates that are better are a great plus)iWork by faaaar. Seriously, not even a contest. Go look at some screenshots or videos of iWork docs.

[Redrazor39]

thanks bashveank for actually answering my question.

I know you all are trying to help but I know about OpenOffice and my mom won't use it for whatever reason. Plus, the professionalism in the final products just isn't there (ok just end that argument here, don't quote me or bother me about that)

She and I both need an office suite that fits in with the list I posted in the first post.

About getting a macbook, she hates small screens, it's more expensive as far as $/hardware goes, and her job does not make it feasible to carry a laptop around.

Because of this, the office suite needs to be able to convert to MS Office 2003/04 formats almost perfectly or even completely perfectly. I'm leaning towards iWork as she can't stand the clutter and bugs of MS software, but I need to know exactly how good exporting to older MS formats is in iWork 08. Perhaps it would be nice if someone with iWork 08 made a test powerpoint that tested most of the animations, effects, text, pictures, sounds, etc in iWork and posted it here in MS ppt format for us to review? That would help greatly

Thanks!

[Redrazor39]

help?

[shuttleworthwannabe]

Ok, why not use iWorks and prepare the presentation and save in OSX office format. Then convert to PDF as slide show (no animations will be captures, just slides). Can open on Windows machine with Adobe reader and use presentation mode there.
Alternatively, as other have suggested use OpenOffice (if you follow the OOo development, there is going to be a Mac OSX themed and optimized version cming this october OOo v3.0).

This is very interesting, that MS Office cliams to have open XML formating, which technically should be platform independent?? right? hey what gives?

S

[Incense]

It sounds like compatibility is a big deal for you, so you may just want to go with office. Office 2004 really wasn't too bad, and I'm sure you can find it cheap. I'm sure Office 08 will come around. I believe they already have a service pack out on it, so maybe that will help.

I would much rather use pages, and keynote over word and powerpoint though. Keynote produces brilliant presentations, though as far as I can tell they are not PP compatiable. Pages doesn't have a problem with the Doc format, though some of the design elements get lost in the translation (save to PDF). Maybe you can just get iwork 08, and try to sell the family on OpenOffice 3 for OS X. It's native so no X11. It works really well. Good luck.

[Redrazor39]

My mom doesn't really use animations much, but maybe a little. I like to have awesome slide transitions.

What my mom needs is to be able to quickly and easily set up a solid, good looking presentation that she can fill in with facts and then save as .ppt.

I need something that's easy to start up and powerful (not like super powerful, but has cool features) and save in .ppt or I'll just burn it to a DVD or something.

[Incense]

It looks like keynote does support export to ppt (http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/#share), so I would say you're good saving some cash (and stress) and going with iWork.

[Redrazor39]

Thank you everyone :)


I will go with iWork now :)

[SunnyRabbiera]

well if needed to you can use iWork as a primary and see if it can at least port maybe windows .docs and use open office as a in between